Microsoft's scapegoating explanation doesn't hold water

He's got a point. I think the full win8 x86 tablet is quite a compelling product, but what's W8RT selling point? It's going to have no backwards compatibility, will be less polished than the iPad, and won't be cheaper than Android tablets with the same hardware.

The W8RT tablet will have Office on it, I suppose, but this is more strangeness: anyone who wants Office is going to want the x86 tablet - which doesn't come with Office!

The x86 Surface looks like a nice product, but the business strategy looks very muddled to me.

"Error establishing a database connection", so Google cache: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:semiac...

Microsoft is getting greedy. Seeing the success of Apple and of Google's Nexus products, it seeks to do the same by releasing Surface. Microsoft's greed made it completely forget the role that its OEMs had in its own success, so much so that it neglected to tell many OEM partners about Surface until the Friday before the announcement, and to many others didn't tell them at all. If Surface does not sell like hotcakes, it will be big trouble for Microsoft, and they won't be able to get out of it by firing anyone.